It’s my 100th Post! Woo Hoo! Rejoice! Rejoice! I started this about 10 months ago and thought that I would maybe do it for a month or two but man, I somehow keep spitting out the reviews amidst everything else going on in my life so I suppose I’m here to stay – until I’m not.
I’ve noticed a few things along the way. It’s way harder to write a glowing complimentary review than it is to completely rip apart a God Awful comic book. Interesting huh? I think that’s why you see so many people who do reviews engage in negative feedback, it’s way easier to do. Being critical of something is a knee jerk reaction, it hits you hard and all you have to do is respond to your aesthetic triggers and drop several pages of vitriol. Maybe that’s why maddening books like ‘What’s the Furthest Place From Here’ or anything that Marvisney has been pooping out the past year are so easy to tear to pieces; there’s so much bleccchh to cover you’ll never run out of options for jokes or digs.
But to laud something? To declare something great, that takes some doing. You really have to ask yourself, hmm, why is this great? Why did this have such a profound impact on me? What is it about this that gave me that emotional lift that I always look for? Once you take the time to figure all of that out without having to drop bank on some wackadoodle doc on a therapy couch to tap into your subconscious needs, you’re then left to figuring out how to write adulatory text that doesn’t use the words awesome and great every other sentence.
Look, when I do Stand-Up I don’t go out there and tell everyone about the amazing date I just had and how we connected on a deep level and giggled over our idiosyncrasies, tee hee. I would get the light in a minute flat and never be invited back to that venue. No! People wanna hear about the Psycho Goth I met through AdultFriendfinder that met me at a Starbucks in a full see through get up, a top hat and furry boots and croaked like a frog when she laughed. They wanna hear how she had a dozen switchblades in her pocket book and threw them at telephone poles with startling accuracy while asking me if I would go see her band Vile PooBrain in Costa Mesa that Sunday night. Ya know, I’ve always wondered if I sought out these psychos for material rather than seeking out normal well balanced women. I’m sure there was always a part of me deep down that wondered ‘Man, this chick probably will give me 20 minutes of material’. In the finale of ‘Mrs. Maisel’ (one of the greatest TV Shows ever created in the history of the Universe and Multiverse) she speaks about how her dates have basically become fodder for her act during her big break on the Gordon Ford show; there’s definitely a lot of truth to that sentiment.
At any rate, I’ve enjoyed the burn to the ground reviews as much as the lift up to the heavens reviews and for my 100th offering I present to you a comic that shall also be glorified and lifted to the comic book heavens with pages that sing and glisten in luxurious gold. I give to you: Something Epic! I think if this title was released by Marvisney or a publisher like Boom! I would’ve poo poo’d it but when it’s Image you have to give them the benefit of the doubt that this book is in fact epic: and it is.
There’s a ‘10 page’ rule for screenwriters. If you can’t
hook someone with your script in the first 10 pages then your script is
probably going to suck. Right off the bat you can tell that Szymon Kudranski is at the
top of his game; the writing is elevated and inspired. It’s not expositional
either, it’s a treatise on imagination and how it finds its way to exist in our
physical world. The premise: Daniel is a kid who can see the world of imagination,
not just what is but what has been. In other words, he also sees the thought
creations and ideas of that which didn’t make it into the physical realm. He is
like Cole Sear of the Sixth Sense but instead of seeing dead people he sees
forgotten characters and after thoughts. There’s a whole B Story of his Mother’s
struggle a s a single Mom to make ends meet and take care of Daniel through
compromising circumstances which only adds to sympathetic nature of our lead. Then there's art, dark, evocative, a concerted attention to every detail. I daresay this is a passion project of Szymon, something he's been working on for a while and of course it would be given the platform to breathe by the magnanimous publisher called Image.
Something Epic feels unconventional, it feels as if it’s
seeking to push the boundaries of what the medium of comic books can offer. The
fact that they use the back cover as the real estate for the final panel of the
issue is evidence of this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a final panel placed on
a back cover before. I’m going to assume that Daniel meets others like him as
he finds a way to either harness this gift or seeks a device to bridge the two
worlds. I've not heard of this Kudranski guy before but my goodness as both the writer and artist of this perfectly woven start to his series, he's immediately become someone to watch. Wherever this book may go I’m 100% on board. This may be the Epic book
that 2023 has been waiting for and Lord knows we've been waiting a looooong time.
Yeah yeah, boring, why don’t you rip apart Daredevil or Dark Horse’s recent crapola? Make us laugh funny boy! Get off the stage!
Wait wait, did I tell you about the time my date made me take her to a Gay Rave???
Rating: 9.7
Verdict: Epic Pull
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